Monday, August 8, 2016

Aussies
started the tour with a bang in Pallekele, bundling out Lankans for a mere
117. Eight days of cricket later, the series has
been decided, and one of these two teams has been completely humiliated. And
it's not Sri Lanka. In Pallekele, rain
and bad light conspired to drag the first Test into its fifth day, but in Galle
Australia could not even reach the scheduled halfway point of the match. In
less than two and a half days, they had lost an eighth consecutive Test in
Asia. If it was Herath magic, at Galle it was Dilruwan Perera who starred. Perera
picked up 6 for 70 in Australia's second innings of 183 and became the first
Sri Lankan to take 10 wickets and score a half-century in the same Test. Miles away, 4 South African cricketers, including former
Test wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile, have been handed bans by Cricket South
Africa for breaching the board's Anti-Corruption Code. While Tsolekile has been
banned for 12 years, Jean Symes has been given a seven-year ban, and Ethy
Mbhalati and Pumelela Matshikwe have each been given ten-year bans in relation
to the 2015 Ram Slam T20 fixing case.

Well, there are more sports than Cricket,
as some of my friends are to say the obvious.

Nepal’s Gaurika
Singh’s Olympics lasted precisely one minute, 8.45 seconds. She came 32nd
out of 34 competitors attempting to qualify
for the 100metres backstroke. No sooner than it began, it was over. But never
mind. It is unlikely to be her last experience of elite competition. After all,
she is only 13 years old. If she retired in 2032 after competing in the next
four Olympics, she would still be just 29.
Some Nations are already celebrating.
Behind a dominant swim by Michael Phelps, the U.S. won gold in the
400-meter freestyle relay Sunday at the Olympic Aquatics Center. France
finished second and Australia took third. This is the 23rd Olympic medal for
Phelps and his 19th gold, both records.

Some of what is
written here, is not known to me before, especially ‘Produnova’. The vault is
an artistic gymnastics apparatus on which gymnasts perform, as well as the
skill performed using that apparatus. French
gymnast Samir Ait Said, came off the
table a little bit awkwardly and sadly
broke his lower left leg on his vault
landing, a particularly gruesome injury to witness. It shocked the crowd on
Saturday at the Rio Olympic Arena and the upbeat mood turned grim during the
men’s qualification rounds. Fans sitting closer to the vault area, and even
from far away, said they could hear his leg snap. Ait Said was later taken by
stretcher off the floor, receiving a loud round of applause from the crowd. The
veteran Ait Said, 26, was considered a legitimate medal contender on rings in
Rio.

There is lurking
danger, and nothing more dangerous than Produnova, an incredibly dangerous
vault and has a difficulty rating of 7.0 D-score — among the highest. It is so
difficult that till date only five persons, including Dipa Karmakar, have
successfully attempted the vault. It is
named after - Yelena Sergeyevna Produnova, a Russian former competitive
gymnast. Her senior international career lasted from 1995 to 2000, and earned
her multiple world and Olympic medals, though gold always eluded her.

The Produnova is an
artistic gymnastics vault. The vault consists of a front handspring and two
front sommersaults. The vault currently has a 7.0 D-score, and is one of the
hardest vaults being done today in Women's Artistic Gymnastics. At Rio, Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar scripted
history as she became the first Indian to make the cut for the individual vault
finals in her debut Olympic Games after finishing 8th in the qualifying round.

The Tripura-girl,
who is the country's first woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, managed
to perform her much-appreciated ' Produnova' vault cleanly to secure 14.850
points after two attempts. Dipa's success
in reaching the olympics was possible because of the Produnova and the high
score that performing it renders. According to the present rules, even if a
gymnast barely pulls off a Pradunova landing, she could get an edge over most
competitors. Gymnasts from countries which score well enough in other events do
not need to take such gambles with vaults. Before the Rio Olympics, only a few
have attempted the Produnova in competitions, but for gymnasts like Dipa it
paves a way, even if dangerous, to the medal platform.

Simone Biles, part
of the US team for Rio is quoted as saying "I am not trying to die," to the New
Yorker with reference to the Produnova.

It was
not a great day otherwise for India. Despite
dominating the game for the most parts and two penalty corners, one of which
they scored from, India were on the losing end of the second match of the Group
B games against Germany with a 2-1 scoreline. The goal also came with three seconds to spare to
make it an agonising loss for the PR Sreejesh-led team. The Champion Abhinav Bindra left it late to
qualify for the Final in the 10m air rifle event. He continued to remain in the
top 8 after the first two series but then dropped to outside the top 10 when he
shot 102.1 in the fifth series. He
qualified for the final, a medal was there – it seemed. Bindra
the only individual Olympic gold medalist in 2008 at Beijing in the same men's
10m air rifle event, lost a tension-filled shoot-off against Ukrainian marksman
S Kulish after the two were tied third at 163.8 in the race to reach the medal
round.

There
was more of ill-luck as Sajan Prakash wais knocked out of the 200m butterfly
event. He clocked 1:59.37 as India's challenge in swimming at Rio Olympics 2016
ends.